The present invention relates to a telephone monitoring system for use in association with a telephone for automatically responding to and recording a telephone communication from a caller who has dialed the telephone number allocated to the telephone coupled with the telephone monitoring system herein disclosed.
More particularly, the present invention pertains to a telephone monitoring system of the type above referred to which has the following capabilities:
1. When the caller dials the telephone number of the telephone coupled with the telephone monitoring system herein disclosed (the latter telephone being hereinafter referred to as receiver's telephone), the system automatically responds to the caller's telephone and records a message from the caller for a predetermined period of time on one of a plurality of tracks of a multi-track magnetic tape. This mode of operation of the system can be repeated in number corresponding to the number of the tracks of the tape on which messages from respective callers are recorded.
2. Depending on the situation of the receiver, receiver's messages recorded on the tape can be selectively transmitted to the caller upon the receiver's telephone receiving an input signal from the caller's telephone.
3. After all of the tracks of the tape have been recorded upon with a corresponding number of messages from individual callers, the system automatically transmits to the callers who have happened to dial the receiver's telephone thereafter, a receiver's recorded message which corresponds in content to the selected one of the receiver's message mentioned in the preceding item.
Heretofore, it is common practice in offices or other business establishments to employ an automatic telephone monitoring system whereby, when there are no staff available to answer incoming telephone calls, an answer previously recorded on a magnetic tape is played to callers. In such a telephone monitoring system, when a person makes a call to a telephone equipped with the monitoring system, a prerecorded answer is played, and the caller is also informed that he or she may record a message, and then there is made available a certain amount of tape, on which the caller may record a message. It is general practice to employ the same tape both for a prerecorded answer and for subsequently recorded messages, the tape employed being commonly in cassete tape form, and different tracks thereon being made available for different messages. When all the tracks available for messages have been consumed, subsequent callers are informed that no more messages can be recorded, and simply hear the prerecorded answer. It is evident that there are a variety of situations in which staff may not be available for answering a telephone, and in which it is wished to employ an automatic telephone monitoring system, and where there are a corresponding variety of prerecorded answers for use in the different situations. For example, different answers to callers are required if an office is closed for the week-end, or closed until the following morning, or if staff are only temporarily absent.
According to the conventional monitoring system, it is necessary to provide and prepare as many different tapes as answers it is required to prerecord, and then, for each different situation to set the relevant tape in the recording equipment. This manipulation of different tapes is troublesome, and to some extent defeats the original purpose of automatic telephone monitoring systems which are intended to be an aid to business procedure. Also, the fact that there are different tapes to be identified and set up is conducive to error, and the wrong tape for a particular situation may be installed, especially considering that the telephone monitoring system is generally set up quickly.